“What you're hearing there is a determination by the president of the United States to not let semantics or the arguments of the past get in the way of exploring the ability to work together with Russia and with President Putin in the days ahead," Pence said.

While Russia was evidently willing to speak out against O’Reilly’s comments, it was more circumspect when it came to anything Trump had said about the Russian leader.

“As for statements by the U.S. president, I would prefer not to comment in this case,” Peskov said.

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